Big Tower Tiny Square

Author Comments

Check out the enhanced version of Big Tower Tiny Square on Steam! http://store.steampowered.com/app/751250/Big_Tower_Tiny_Square/
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1.2.2 Notes
- Removed the wall-stick
- Wall-jumping is easier
- Misc. control tweaks. Player speed is lower however there is now better control in the air and less slippery on the ground.
- Minor level design changes to accomodate the new controls.
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1.2.1 Notes
- Minor control changes
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1.2.0 Update Notes

A/D or Arrow keys to move
SPACE OR Z to jump and swim
Jump when adjacent to a wall to wall jump!
ESC to go to main menu

The Premise

Your best friend Pineapple has been stolen by Big Square and taken to the top of a deathtrap-filled Big Tower. Climb the Big Tower, Tiny Square, and rescue Pineapple!

...Yes the premise is stupid, but the gameplay is fun! Speaking of which...

Gameplay

Dodge bullets, leap lava pits, and wall-jump your way up the Big Tower in this tough-but-fair platformer.
Anyone can do that, right? Sure the controls are easy, and the obstacles are fair. But do you have the skill necessary to make it to the top? Precision is key to success! No sprint, no double-jump, and no floaty controls! Just quick deaths and generous respawn points.

Arcade Inspired

Big Tower Tiny Square is heavily inspired by single-screen arcade games. The game is one giant level broken up into large single-screen sections. Each obstacle has been meticulously designed. It will take precision and skill to navigate the maze-like tower.

Controller Support

Plug your Xbone/360 Controller in and check the in-game instructions for the controls.

Backtracking through the tower wasn't hard. At least it was much easier than getting up the tower. It wasn't really a surprise, I even was planning to backtrack anyway. I kinda realized this because as I was playing through my second time (my data got deleted at the last floor). So by the time I replayed it, I played as well as I would've played it both times as I already pretty much mastered the controls.

I wish the down NPC squares were more climatic as I backtracked unnecessary parts to find their dialog (which means my time would be even lower down the tower). I think one of the NPC square's dialog was copied. It was "Oh you killed Pineapple instead of Big Square? Oh no!". Or at least it was so generic that it wasn't worth the back track. I wish the tutorial npcs could be accessed with new dialog. That's about it.

Good things. Fun gameplay, the checkpoints were forgiving. Even though people complain that it is hard, it's forgiving enough to not make you play through many hard parts in a row just to master one of those hard parts. I liked the toxic sludge at the beginning, I wish the tower had more aesthetics like that though. The gameplay did not feel repetitive or tedious, as even though you used a few objects, the challenges faced seemed unique. It was funny too. I liked how I could destroy fellow turrets. From then on I vowed to destroy every turret. On my way down I spent quite a bit of time circling a turret trying to get it to shoot itself (more time lost).

Two hundred and eighty one, that's the number of times I died when playing this game. It frustrated me beyond belief, but it was still fun and felt rewarding when I finally managed to beat it (in spite of the anticlimatic ending). Aside from some control issues, the challenge felt legitimate and fair at (mostly) all times.

This is your everyday action platformer, with regular jumps, wall jumps, a plethora of obstacles, and a mostly linear path to the end. It stands out, though, due to pretty good level design and the overall sense of scale we get when we see such large chunks of the game at once. It maddened me and made me punch my keyboard in frustration, but it never bored me nor made me feel like my deaths were unfair. If you're into these nearly masochistic (but still fair) games, this is for you.

There are a few issues with the controls, though. In particular, with the jumping response time. Very often did I fall into the lava due to not being able to jump because I pressed the jump button too close to the edge. That frustrated me more than it should.

Also, the wall spikes are often too hard to see if you're not a person with perfect eyesight, which led me to die more times than I should due to simply not noticing the wall spikes in time.